Talking SEC football with CBS analyst Gary Danielson

Florida's a train wreck, Alabama and LSU are mini-NFL teams, Auburn will stumble, Tennessee's a sleeper and watch out for Georgia.

Those are some of the opinions of CBS analyst Gary Danielson, who seems to be working as hard as the players and coaches to prepare for the 2011 college football season.

"Continuing education," said Danielson, who has visited campuses to spend time with coaches. "They open up to me. They have a lot of confidence that I will be discreet enough to enhance the broadcast but not give away trade secrets."

Danielson opened up himself late last week in a wide-ranging interview.

Q. What are your expectations this season?
A. How will these teams react to more and more scrutiny and pressure of being the top conference and all the expectations that go with it? I'm actually going to put Florida at the bottom. In my 20 years of doing this, I don't know if I've ever seen a more dysfunctional season from a team, in every direction. Young players. Old players. Coaches. Head coach. It was a train wreck.

Q. A train wreck?
A. I thought the Michigan program was bad, what they went through a couple years ago. What Florida went through last year, I've never seen anything like it. I didn't pick them to win it, because I figured they'd go through a huge transition, but a lot of experts picked (John) Brantley to be an All-American quarterback. Some even picked him to win the Heisman. Some of the top talking heads and experts picked Florida to win the SEC. ... How they retool is fascinating to me.

Q. What else?
A. The middle of the pack: Can South Carolina continue to ride Steve Spurrier's rebuilding program? This might be one of the great stories that people aren't talking about. Steve Spurrier leaving Florida at the top. He had that special itch. Steve goes to his own drummer. I love that about him. I feel some connection to Steve, because I kind of go to my own drummer. I'm really a loner. He realized the NFL wasn't for him, took a job at South Carolina, and what he's doing there is just amazing. At his age (66), his intensity, his enthusiasm ... I find what he's doing there fascinating.

Q. Who else intrigues you?
A. The younger guy, the way Dan Mullen is doing it at Mississippi State. They are a legitimate team now to win any game. They've gotten bigger, stronger, faster. They believe in what they're doing. Like in baseball, they're a tough out.

Q. How about the top?
A. The pressure to live up to expectations for Alabama and LSU will be fun to watch, because they're in the mini-NFL. If they don't bring their top game every week, they can get knocked off. With the fan base that they have, it is fascinating to see how these players are going to handle this pressure.

Q. And how about some of the others?
A. Arkansas is a legitimate team. Georgia, a lot of pressure is on them. And to me, Tennessee is going to make a vast improvement this year. That's a team to really watch. More of the same! You can't get any better than this. I call it college competition at the highest level.

Q. Many people are already billing the Alabama-LSU game on Nov. 5 as the national championship game. Do you buy that?
A. Well ... yes. It could be. Since these teams rose to the top, they've been fantastic football games. You play in those games, you've got to be a man. They are fascinating. But to get to that heavyweight fight, there's so many things in front of these teams.

Q. What's in front of Alabama?
A. Alabama, I really say, don't underrate the value that (Greg) McElroy brought to the team. He ran Nick's offense the way he wanted it run. When you're wanting a ball-control offense ... I had to do that a bit when I played for the Lions. That team was not built around me, obviously. I was a journeyman quarterback who had to get the ball to (RB) Billy Sims and good receivers, but you have that urge as an athlete to try to show what you can do. In Nick Saban's offense, the way he has it with (offensive coordinator Jim) McElwain, you have to be a player within the system. It was great for Greg. So as McCarron and Sims come in there with that urge to prove how good you are ... the quarterback position at Alabama, you have to play within. It's really hard for a four- or five-star athlete coming into college and now you've got to submit yourself into doing what he wants to do. It's going to be tough. So as good as they are - we all know this quarterback position is the key to it - they're just going to be fascinating to watch.

Q. How about LSU?
A. I have question marks, and I think deservedly so. Jordan Jefferson, they keep saying, "Oh, he's a new man! He's a new man!" I say, "Show me. I've seen you do it in a couple bowl games. I've seen you do it when you've had some time off. I want to see you do it every week." It's not about whether I believe in him. It's whether he shows me that he deserves to be believed in. I'm for everybody doing well. It's just, he's going to have a very talented backup behind him. He's going to have a short leash. The fans and talk radio, you know how that is. When you play quarterback, it's what you sign up for when you come to one of these top schools. He has a bad quarter, he has a bad half, the pressure will build, and Les Miles will have a long year if it doesn't go great. And when does it go great every week? That's almost impossible. LSU is very talented. We all know that. The top two teams, it's very interesting. A young quarterback and a veteran quarterback, both about which we have huge question marks about.

Q. How is it that Alabama has nine players who are first-team preseason All-SEC picks and LSU has one, and yet the two teams are mentioned in the same breath?
A. LSU has earned that spot. They have won 10-plus games every year under Les. We all know what kind of players they recruit. They have a lot of returning football players. Their defensive line is stacked with great athletes. Their offensive line returns four out of five. The receivers are highly skilled. They find ways to win in these big, tough games. Alabama has five-star athletes. Literally the last three years, they won the national championship, they were preseason No. 1 to win last year and this year they're considered the odds-on favorite to win it. That's three straight years they've been considered No. 1 in the country. They've got a lot of veterans returning. They've earned their spot.

Q. How about the defending national champion? Many people think there will be a big dropoff at Auburn.
A. Well, I don't see how there can't be. The league is too tough. And as well-coached as you are and you're trying to turn this thing around the way Gene (Chizik) has, he really caught lightning in the bottle. I was looking at the preseason show we did last year. At the end of it, we were asked to make one bold prediction. My prediction was that this year's draft would set the record with six quarterbacks being taken in the first round, and I named them. Part of my six were Matt Barkley, Kellen Moore and Andrew Luck, and I think Case Keenum. There were three or four or five of them that didn't get drafted. They still almost broke the record, and none of us had Cam Newton, and he was the first quarterback taken. I had a good point, but I didn't get the guys right. That's how fascinating Cam coming out of nowhere was to college football last year, and you might make the same argument about Nick Fairley. I said on the air many times that Cam's MVP season last year was so incredible because I did not feel Auburn fielded that dynamic of a football team. Out of the SEC championship teams the last five years, Auburn was the least talented. Now they've got new guys. When you lose 30 seniors and you replace a quarterback, in this conference, you've got a tough row. However, that doesn't mean that Auburn can't get better as this season goes along. They've got a quarterback coach in Gus Malzahn who is used to bringing in new quarterbacks. I think I read somewhere that this is his sixth year in coaching college football where he's had a new quarterback every year. The experience of watching their teammates win can carry over. But I think it's going to be a struggle to win more games than they lose in the conference.

Q. Is there a sleeper in the conference this year like Auburn was last year?
A. The schedule really favors Georgia. They do not play LSU and Alabama. They play South Carolina at home in a game they have to win. They've got the most experienced quarterback in the league. They're bigger, stronger, hungrier. It's the second year of kind of a Nick Saban-disciple defense. They've recruited to it. They should be better. And I think Tennessee is the sleeper. I've got great respect for what the Tennessee coaching staff and (offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney and everyone involved there is doing. Who knows where that team is going to come from? It could be anybody. You can't even say Georgia is a sleeper.

Q. Will the national champion be an SEC team for the sixth consecutive year?
A. Seven of the top 10 teams are either from the SEC or the SEC will play in nonconference games. So I really believe they have an opportunity. If LSU beats Oregon and West Virginia, which is no easy task. If Alabama does their job with Penn State. If Georgia beats Boise State. If Arkansas beats Texas A&M. If Florida knocks off a strong Florida State team at the end of the year, I really believe you could make a strong case that not only does the SEC win all ties into the championship game but they leapfrog anybody ahead of them if they have one loss and somebody else is undefeated. Frankly, they've earned that. If you've won five championships in a row and say they win four out of five of these showdowns early, that makes a statement that you have the right to lose a game, win the SEC championship and still play for the national championship.

Q. Will we see a day when two SEC teams play each other in the BCS Championship Game? Maybe this season?
A. There is a scenario. I could see LSU losing at Alabama or Arkansas losing a close road game to either LSU or Alabama and the other team winning the SEC championship with one loss. Could Arkansas loses a nail-biter to Alabama, win the rest of their games, Alabama win the SEC championship and Arkansas' sitting there with one loss and they have beat a Big 12-winning Texas A&M? That would be talk show heaven for everybody, wouldn't it? It could happen, but I find it unlikely. But in the future it could. If (Texas) A&M and Oklahoma come into this league, why not?

Q. Where is conference realignment headed?
A. The major powers - Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, I could name some of the SEC schools, but we know who they are - they're beginning to say, "Why am I sharing my money with Iowa State?" When they start to decide how not to share the money equally, when the greed takes over ... that's why Commissioner (Mike) Slive and the SEC have done such a great job. They've kept everybody together and stressed how important everybody in the conference is to everybody else. When you start getting greedy, things fall apart real quick.